p before me, and _you_ seem to be the hero
of them all. But I must not waste my paper thus. I know you will be
anxious for news. I have very little to give you, however. Good old
Mr Singleton has been _very_ kind to us since you went away. He comes
constantly to see us, and comforts dear Mamma very much. Your friend,
Dr Singleton, will be glad to hear that he is well and strong. Tell my
friend Buzzby that his wife sends her `compliments'. I laugh while I
write the word! Yes, she actually sends er `compliments' to her
husband. She is a very stern but a really excellent woman. Mamma and I
visit her frequently when we chance to be in the village. Her two boys
are the finest little fellows I ever saw. They are both so like each
other that we cannot tell which is which when they are apart, and both
are so like their father that we can almost fancy we see him, when
looking at either of them.

"The last day we were there, however, they were in disgrace, for Johnny
had pushed Freddy into the washing-tub, and Freddy, in revenge, had
poured a jug of treacle over Johnny's head! I am quite sure that Mrs
Buzzby is tired of being a widow--as she calls herself--and will be very
glad when her husband comes back. But I must reserve chit-chat to the
end of my letter, and first give you a minute account of all your
friends."

Here followed six pages of closely-written quarto, which, however
interesting they might be to those concerned, cannot be expected to
afford much entertainment to our readers, so we will cut Isobel's letter
short at this point.

"Cap'n's ready to go aboord, sir," said O'Riley, touching his cap to
Captain Ellice while he was yet engaged in discussing the letter with
his son.

"Very good."

"An', plaaze sir, av ye'll take the throuble to look in at Mrs Meetuck
in passin', it'll do yer heart good, it will."

"Very well, we'll look in," replied the captain as he quitted the house
of the worthy pastor.

The personage whom O'Riley chose to style Mrs Meetuck was Meetuck's
grandmother. That old lady was an Esquimaux whose age might be
algebraically expressed as an _unknown quantity_. She lived in a boat
turned upside down, with a small window in the bottom of it, and a hole
in the side for a door. When Captain Ellice and Fred looked in, the old
woman, who was a mere mass of bones and wrinkles, was seated on a heap
of moss beside a fire, the only chimney to which was a hole in the
bottom of the boa